It's federal tax day, and the eternal discussion about "how much?" is joined. Or isn't.

For all the time U.S. citizens spend talking about taxes, not much of it is devoted to a philosophical discussion about how far it can go. That is to say, a ceiling.

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&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7038699/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;When I pay my taxes every April 15 I feel:&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;p>

Obviously doing so has drawbacks. Those who salivate at the prospect of higher taxes would object to any ceiling as too low. Those convinced government already gets more than its fair share would object that once a ceiling is set there would be nothing to keep government below it.

Addressing this very issue, John H. Cochrane of the University of Chicago business school floats a novel idea on maximum taxes in The Wall Street Journal.

In Venezuela, presidential elections are complete and it appears Nicolas Maduro, the anointed successor of the deceased Hugo Chavez, won by an unexpectedly narrow margin. Although polls had shown challenger Henrique Capriles closing in the final weeks, few if any analysts predicted anything other than a comfortable Maduro victory.

The election's razor thin finish reflects the fragile support Chavez had. For all the fawning Hollywood did over him, Chavez was a disaster. Indeed, show biz airheads were about Chavez's last redoubt in the U.S. as even thoughtful left-wingers like The New Yorker had deserted him. Here's the money graph from The Economist's take on yesterday's results, which omits a serious crime problem:

"ChÃ¡vez's legacy is a country beset with problems which Mr Maduro looks ill-equipped to solve. Inflation, which is likely to exceed 30% this year, is among the world's highest. Many staple foods are difficult or impossible to obtain. The economy is heading for recession, despite the fact that oil, its mainstay, is selling for over $100 a barrel. That, combined with declining foreign reserves and increasing indebtedness, will force the new president to make tough decisions on funding for the social programmes that are the regime's main claim on the allegiance of supporters."

On the lighter side, I enjoyed these articles Glenn Reynolds, the libertarian law professor from the University of Tennessee and founder of the Instapundit blog wrote in Popular Mechanics about lionfish in the Caribbean.

The idea of eating pests is an appealing one, and something Louisiana has tried from time to time with nutria. My biggest regret from the years spent in Latin America for The Times-Picayune was my failure to write a feature on how nutria are treated in Cuba.
Here's the punch line version of it: in eastern Cuba, they eat nutria and they aren't a problem. At Guantanomo, where U.S. naval base regulations forbid firing a weapon, the nutria are out of control, doing damage just as they do in Jefferson Parish and other parts of Louisiana.